MLMSkeptic investigates this little conundrum, by exploring what Valentus did in the aftermath passing blame, then check the sources from Valentus itself, and the statements by Ms. Thompson, then checking the relevant UK laws and interpretations, to see if there is ANY hope for Valentus, in UK, and in rest of Europe.
Recently, when forced to address the issue, Valentus corporate "Director of International Registration", Terry Recknor, gave a webinar. Ms. Recknor initially blamed Ms. Thompson for spamming thousands of people, implying that was the reason for the visit from Trading Standards, but she soon dropped this bomb:
This seems to imply that as soon as Valentus registered their products in the UK, then there would be no more problems. In the meanwhile, there are suggestions that recruitment in UK and rest of Europe are continuing as if nothing was wrong, despite warning from Ms. Thompson that dealing in Valentus is apparently illegal.What you need to understand is, the products technically are illegal because we’re not registered yet.
So, what is the truth? Let's investigate first, what does UK Trading Standards actually do? In the case of their visit to Ms. Thompson, it is to offer:
- Business advice: Trading standards offer a range of business advice and enforcement policies for all traders and businesses. These range from issues regarding licensing to consumer protection laws.
So presumably, when you combine the various statements given by Ms. Thompson, Ms. Recknor, and explanations, one should conclude that
- Valentus SlimRoast coffee needs to be registered in UK
- Lack of registration is a violation of consumer protection laws
- Ms. Thompson's spam alerted Trading Standards to let her know
But is this true? Searching UK Food Laws (Food Safety Act 1990, Food Standards Act 1999, and Food Hygiene Regulations 2006) brought up nothing about registering coffee or similar drink mixes and such. There had to be a different reason.
Which brings us back to "consumer protection", and what other areas does that cover. This was made clear at a different Trading Standards page:
We make sure that people are not misled by claims, prices, descriptions and other selling techniques used by traders when they are selling goods and services.
As it wasn't about registration, let us investigate whether Valentus made any misleading claims. But what constitutes misleading claims under UK law? As SlimRoast is about weight loss, I googled "weight loss claim UK", and that brought me to Advertising Standard Authority, or asa.org.uk and their guidance on slimming guidelines for the press (PDF).
